terrible truth

EmPulse for Week of August 30, 2010

terrible truth

Truth has many interpretations…, or so we’re been led to believe. It’s a matter of perspective. Say some. Truthiness, touts Stephen Colbert. Truth is divine Revelation found in Scripture, the Koran, the Bible…, or, truth is what you make it. It’s all relative, relatively speaking. Whatever your perspective on Truth, or truth, if you prefer, one thing is clear— we all want Truth to be something with which we are comfortable. Good truth, happy truth, encouraging truth, truth lite. If there must be bad truth, let it be about somebody else, their bad, their rotten situation, their tragedy…, not mine!

This is the reason many Christians have veered away from talking about hell, the final judgment, even people’s sin against a Holy God. It makes people uncomfortable. Let God deal with it; it’s His problem that we’re in this mess anyway. If God were all loving and all forgiving we wouldn’t have this problem. We could live with His Truth as well as ours and there would be no conflict. Besides, who’s to say there’s anything like “ultimate” Truth anyway. Truth is individually and culturally determined.

Ah, if it were only so; but it is not. There are terrible Truths in this reality of ours that cannot be averted— Suffering exists, war, personal pain & loss, disappointment, betrayal, deceit in business and love, murder of the innocents, etc. Albert Einstein was once asked by a reporter “What in your opinion is the most important question facing humanity today?” Einstein replied, “Is the universe a friendly place?” I believe most civil human beings would like it to be. Some of us pretend that all is rosy, bright, and simple; we endeavor to live in that reality (fanciful as it might be) as much as possible. Disaster strikes this type of person and leaves life endangering scars that often compound the delusion to the breaking point.

So wonder with me for a few moments on some of the Terrible Truths we all live with, like it or not.

God is not exclusively all loving and all forgiving. He is also the Lord God Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of life, and Judge; He will judge us all according to how we have lived & treated others, especially His son, Jesus.

We live in an unfriendly universe; it is not a neutral place. Einstein is right.

NO ONE gets to redefine Truth/truth in their own terms. It stands independently, outside of human control, be it scientific, natural, or spiritual. We merely uncover it and learn of its further effects on us.

The buck stops with each one of us to make a difference. If we shirk off our role in society, the family, or the world, we become part of the problem and are no longer contributing to a solution. Absolutely, our bad.

We can choose to live honorably before God and man; or, we can choose to live as if the world exists for us to suck dry of all it holds. This is beyond a doubt, truly dishonorable living.

All actions have consequences, good and bad. We should not think we can get away with our sinful actions, against God or other people.

There is freedom and forgiveness to be found in Jesus Christ; but we do not receive it automatically, just for living, just for doing a few good things along the way. It can only be acquired through contrition and repentance before the Holy God who made us all.